Note: I am using “metaphysical” not in the negative post-Heideggerian sense shared by these thinkers but in the sense of Karl Popper’s “metaphysical research programmes”, systems of thought proposing a general perspective on the world, containing both testable and untestable elements. For an outline of this approach to Continental Philosophy see this summary post. I propose five criteria for evaluating such research programmes: pluralism, diachrony, apophaticism, testability, and democracy.